Wednesday, May 26, 2010

These placemats are just so much fun to make!I hope you'll sew up some too!

Here is the tutorial for making a singleplacemat and a potholder made in a verysimilar way. As usual, seam allowance is 0.25"unless otherwise noted. Here we go!

Cut out 26 pieces of fabric pieces, each measuring1.5" x 3.5". I cut out 4 pieces from 6 differentfabric and 2 pieces from the interesting fabric.

Lay out the pieces of fabric to come upwith 2 sets of panels made with 13 pieces.

Sew them together.

Fun!

Press seams open.

Now it's nicely flat!Repeat the same process for theother 13 pieces.

Cut out 13.5" x 13.5" square from white Kona.

Sew the patchwork panels to the sides.

Press seam open again.

Cut out a piece of cotton batting a bit largerthan the top panel, then cut out a piecefrom the same Kona white even larger thanthe cotton batting.

Use quilter's basting spray to makethe sandwich nicely attached to each other.(It's not necessary to use this spray,but it will make quilting processabout ten times easier.

Now using a water-soluble pen,draw one line like this in thecenter of the placemat.

Just one line should be good enough ;)

Quilting time ;)I like to start from here to secure the edges.

Then I sew very close to the edgeon the side. I repeat the same processfor the other side.

Then start quilting from the very middlewhere you drew a line.

From there, go towards left and rightmaking parallel quilting lines.

After quilting all the way to thesides, trim excess.

It looks much better now ;)

Now let's make a binding tape.You can purchase already-made onefrom a local craft store, but if you'drather make it on your own, then follow me :DCut out 4 strips measuring 20" x 2" each.

Now we'll sew the strips together.Draw a diagonal line at the edge of one strip.

Sew along the line.

Trim the excess. Repeat the same processto create one long binding tape.

Press seam open.

Press to make a fold at one end.

Now fold the tape in half and press.

Yay! It's time to attach the bindingonto the placemat. We'll start from the endthat is folded. Align the raw edge ofthe tape to the edge of the placemat andstart sewing.

When you are about a few inches from a corner,stop there and use a ruler and a pencil todraw a line at 0.25" from the edge.

Stop at the line and back-stitch.

Now fold the tape like this.

And fold like this, making a folded triangle inside.

Then sew from the very top edge.Do this for the rest of corners too.

When you are almost done with sewing thebias tape on to the placemat, make sure tosew about 0.25" on top of the part that youstarted then trim excess.It should look like this now.

I really like the look of binding tapeattached by hand, so I prefer hand-sewingin this process. You might need to sew iton using a machine if you are working onlast minute gifts because hand-sewing couldtake some time, although it's fun.

Just like this, as I go along, I make sureto cover up the stitching line.

This is how the corner on the back should look like.

Then you're done :D Hooray!!

Do you happen to feel like making a littleversion of it? Maybe a potholder?

I cut out 6 pieces of fabric measuring 2.5" x 1.5"each and one piece of Kona white of 6.5" square.I used pretty much the same method throughoutexcept that I added a little string andreplaced cotton batting with heat-resistant batting.(I needed 4 strips of pieces measuring 2" x 9"to make a binding tape for this.)

I like this as much as those placemats :D

Thank you so much for reading such a long post!I hope you'll make something using this tuteand share your creations in the flickr pool!Now I can't wait to see yours!!

Your tutorials are always so brilliant!! Thanks SO much for doing this one. I have made all but the camera bag - scared of binding - but you've made it look so straight forward with this that I'll be giving these a go!Well done!

Here's my version of the potholder.http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2010/04/pot-holder-how-to.html I will be doing some place mats now too! I like the cleanness of the white you used. I have little people though, perhaps I'm better off with more pattern :) thanks.

Thanks for this great tutorial - but you know what really knocked my socks off? Your use of the suction gripper on your perspex omnigrid ruler! OMG - inspired!!! I have problems pressing down on my ruler when I am cutting and I reckon having a suction gripper like that would make it easy to keep a steady even pressure on the ruler when I am cutting. I am off to the homebuild store at the weekend to look for one.

Thanks again for the great tutorial! Your instructions are always very clear & precise with lots of images - just awesome! そして布あわせが何といっても素敵です～。今回は特に Binding tape の作り方、縫い方、がとても参考になりました。私はハギレの量だけは人に自慢できるほど持っているので（笑）今回の作品、是非作ってみたいです。いつも本当にどうもありがとう♪

I am a big fan of your tutorials and this one comes at the perfect time because I was looking for an idea to make new placemats. Now I know this is just what I will do. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your beautiful designs, you are such an inspiration!

Thanks for another great tutorial Ayumi! Your mats actually inspired me months ago to make my own version. I have just posted about them on my blog:http://jellybeanlupin.blogspot.com/2010/05/placemats.html

I love this project and made a potholder sized one yesterday, however I had a little bit of trouble with the coners of the binding on the back. Could you possibly post a pic of the back of one of the place mats or pot holder? I want to make a million more of these but my corners are crazy. Thanks for the great tutorial.

Ady-I found the gripper at a local fabric shop. It is called the Gypsy Gripper and you can learn about it more here. I think it makes a pretty big difference. Not only that it keep the ruler from slipping but that it can protect us from cutting our hands by accident ;)

Megan-I'm so excited to hear you've made one! yay!I'll add a picture that shows how the corner looks on the back soon!

lilfish-Oops! Thanks! I'm fixing it right away!

Marsha-I think using a very narrow binding tape as in this case helps the corner turn out prettier. When I hand-stitch the binding to the corner of the mat, I focus on hiding the stitching line, and it comes out neat. As for the erasable pen, I recommend the one from Clover. It can be very easily erased when I dab a little water on it ;)

Sophie-The fabric is what I found in Japan a few years ago. It is designed by a Japanese textile designer Suzuko Koseki. I've been looking for the same print for ages but have not had luck. If you like fabric with French words, you might enjoy more fabric from her which can be found in here and here among many others. Hope this helps!

This is great! I am going to have to make some of these for my dining room. I think I'll have the kids even pick out their own fabric for their placemats. :) Thank you for such a thorough post with pics and explanation!

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Beautiful placemats and potholder, but can you tell me, when you're finishing the bias tape on the back, how do you do you're stitches, its hard to tell because they are so small, mine are not like that, so i must be doing something wrong, is there anyway you can post a pic as you are doing it? I would appreciate, ive always wondered hhow people did there finishings and you couldn't see the stitches.Thank you sew muchMary

Thank you! Unfortunately I will not be able to write a tutorial on this for a round table, but I bet it will be easier to keep placemats on a round table if you make these smaller and make the corners round. Hope this helps ;)

Placemat use to protect the surface of the table. This installed each place setting at a table. It is better to make our own placemat if we want personalized and with the help of this detailed tutorial, sewing of this makes easier.

I made a couple of these for a donation to Meals on Wheels that we challenged our guild to. They received tons of remarks on how beautiful they were in their simplicity. I posted a (horrible) photo on my blog and linked back to your tutorial. I hope that's okay.

There's little that hasn't been said above; what a multitude of comments...

Your project is professionally accomplished, your design is unique and pretty, your photography clear, your methodology precise and detailed. In addition, your response to any corrections (aren't we ALL so human!), are polite and timely.

I'll post and link your tutorial to my potholder site next week.

Thank you so much for your time, efforts and the learning you've shared.

Instead of sew the left and right patchwork one by one, can I cut a long piece of fabric, sew and then cut in the middle with rotary cutter...I'm not good at sewing, so I think this way, for me, it'll be equal both side ^.<

Thanks for stopping by my blog! My name is Ayumi. I love sharing my crafty journal and other little anecdotes in my life here. I am a mother to a baby girl and a wife to my husband from Seattle. We live in a small apartment in Tokyo. I hope you enjoy being here :) Welcome♪